BASSWOOD 
91 
thus protecting the nectar from the rain. 
The stem of the cluster is adnate to an ob¬ 
long membranous bract. The nectar is se¬ 
creted and held in the fleshy sepals; and it 
is often so abundant that it appears like 
dewdrops in the sunlight. The blossoms 
are small, light yellow, and exhale a honey¬ 
like fragrance. The stamens are numerous, 
and the anthers contain a small amount of 
pollen, but honeybees seldom gather it 
when the nectar is abundant; if, however, 
the nectar supply is scanty, then both 
honeybees and bumblebees may be seen 
with little balls of pollen on their thighs. 
In England basswood seldom sets seed. 
The inner bark is tough and fibrous, and 
is largely used by agriculturists and florists 
for binding purposes. 
The basswoods have been so cut off dur¬ 
ing the last few years for packing-boxes 
and furniture factories that basswood hon¬ 
ey has almost disappeared from the mar¬ 
ket. 
CULTIVATION. 
If a beekeeper is content to wait, say 10 
or 15 years for the realization of his 
hopes, or if he has an interest in providing 
for the beekeepers of a future generation, 
it will pay him to plant basswood. A tree 
that was set out about 10 years ago on a 
street in Medina, Ohio, novp furnishes a 
profusion of blossoms almost every year; 
and, judging from the way the bees work 
on them it would seem that they furnish 
considerable nectar. A hundred such trees 
in the vicinity of an apiary would be, with¬ 
out doubt, of great value. In the spring 
of 1872 A. I. Root set out 4,000 trees north 
of Medina, and in 1877 many were bear¬ 
ing fair loads of blossoms. While seed¬ 
lings may be obtained by planting the 
seeds, by far the better and cheaper way 
is to get small trees from the forest. They 
can be bought for a very low price. These 
can be obtained in almost any quantity in 
the eastern States from any piece of wood¬ 
land from which all stock has been ex¬ 
cluded. Cattle feed upon the young bass¬ 
woods with great avidity, and pasturing 
the woodlands will eventually cut short the 
growth of basswoods as well as many other 
valuable trees from our forests. Trees all 
the way from one to ten feet tall have been 
planted here at Medina, but the largest 
ones, as a general rule, have done the best. 
The growth of basswood is strongly in¬ 
fluenced by climatic conditions. Among the 
hills of New York the leaves assume mam¬ 
moth proportions. The author measured 
one that was 14 inches long from a small 
tree. While this leaf was among the larg¬ 
est, yet the leaves were, on the average, 
about twice the size of those in the locali¬ 
ty of Medina. In Illinois the basswoods 
seem to be less thrifty than in Ohio. 
The European basswood, which is fully 
as good a honey-producer as the American 
species, is famous as an avenue tree. The 
famous street in Berlin, Unter-der-Linden, 
is shaded by this species. It is known in 
England as “the lime tree,” and is there a 
great favorite for street planting. The 
famous “Lime-tree Walk” of Cambridge 
is well known. It is also an excellent tree 
for street planting in the northern part 
of the United States. It is to be regretted 
that basswood is not more abundant, since 
where it grows it is one of the mainstays 
of the honey-producer, and is also a most 
valuable wood for manufacturing pur¬ 
poses. It will hardly do for outside ex¬ 
posure to the weather, but is admirably 
adapted for packing-boxes and for furni¬ 
ture, forming the bottom and sides of 
drawers, the backs of bureaus and dress¬ 
ing-cases. It is also employed extensively 
in the manufacture of paper. 
As large quantities of the timber are 
used in making section honey-boxes, the 
question has been raised, “Why do the 
manufacturers of supplies use the tree that 
produces so much honey and of such fine 
quality 1 ?” Is it a case of “killing the goose 
that lays the golden egg?” The answer is, 
that the amount used by the makers of 
sections is only a drop in the bucket com¬ 
pared with that used in the other arts. 
Even if all the bee-supply manufacturers 
should discontinue the use of basswood, the 
difference in the amount of honey produced 
from that valuable tree would never be no¬ 
ticed. For the making of section honey- 
boxes there is no timber available that has 
the same degree of toughness to stand the 
fold at the V edge in the ordinary one- 
piece section. The four-piece section has 
now practically dropped out of the market 
on account of the expense and time taken 
in preparing it for the hive. 
